For Ruspini's Styptic some half-dozen run; But the crowd stayed to laugh and enjoy the high fun; All hop'd the long thread of the Law was now spun. Oh, what a joy to Old England! And, oh, to Old England what joy!
But Heaven, to punish this half-ruin'd nation, Permitted again each to take his old station, The people to gall with the deepest vexation. Oh, what a grief to Old England! And, oh, to Old England what grief!
1785. [Comfort in the Gout.] (See July 1, 1802.) Republished 1802.
COMFORT IN THE GOUT.
June 28, 1785. Vauxhall Gardens. Engraved by R. Pollard, aquatinted by F. Jukes. Published by John Raphael Smith.—It will be remembered by the reader that, in the earlier part of this sketch of Rowlandson's Life, Works, and Times, special reference is made by the artist's friend and the frequent companion of his adventures, Henry Angelo, to their expeditions to Vauxhall Gardens to study character. The varied humours discovered at this popular resort employed Rowlandson's pencil frequently, as we are told in the Memoirs. It seems, on the authority of those who were most intimate with the caricaturist, and who were also thoroughly well acquainted with the leading examples of his skill, that Vauxhall Gardens may be accepted as his chef d'œuvre in the general estimation. We can compare it to his drawing of the Tuileries Gardens, which is even fuller of diversified groups.
In the famous picture of Vauxhall we have the Rotunda, a marvellous construction, built from the designs of an inventive carpenter, a modest genius, who obtained a certain celebrity for his ingenuity.[27] 'The gilded scallop-shell,' described by Thackeray in the Vauxhall episode which is introduced in the opening of Vanity Fair, was as it appeared within the writer's recollection, a melancholy, tawdry substitute for the vanished splendours as noted in Rowlandson's drawing. A portly lady, standing in front of the orchestra, is warbling ballads to the highly genteel company, the patrons of the entertainment; of the performers we are able to offer but scanty particulars.